The present invention relates to surgical instrument holders, and more particularly, to hand-held holders of rotary orthopedic bone cutting tools. Surgical instruments and their respective holders have to be kept clean and sterile before any use in a hospital environment in order to minimize risk of transfer of disease or infection from patient to patient following the emergence of certain “prions” that are not killed by normal hospital sterilization and thus need to be physically removed through washing and rinsing. A surgical instrument, for example for preparing for the fitting of a hip prosthesis, works in a medium which causes considerable soiling of both the instrument and the instrument holder. Despite the importance of doing so, the thorough cleaning of these devices is difficult. Surgical instrument holders of the prior art are designed such that washing and rinsing are generally not an effective way of cleaning the instrument. This is due to the small spaces left between component parts which allow only minimal access by cleaning agents.
It is desirable to collect bone fragments as a reamer cuts. Reamers typically have a concave or convex structural portion which can provide an integrated space in which bone fragments may be collected during cutting. However, this requires the reamer to have a complex, 3-dimensional configuration, the reamer being concave or convex in some respect. An integral collection space in a reamer having a complex configuration can make cleaning and sterilization difficult, and can require relatively exceptional attention to accomplish. Additionally, the reamer is typically just the tool head portion of a reamer tool and a tool handle/holder combination. The tool head and tool holder can be integrally combined, or the tool head can be detachable from the tool holder. The holder must also be cleaned and sterilized between uses.
It is advantageous to the field that surgical instruments be available that can easily be brought to the appropriate level of cleanliness and sterility, or that are configured to avoid potential cleanliness and sterility problems. To promote improved levels of cleanliness and sterility, those active in the field have been motivated to develop “single use” or disposable surgical instrument and instrument components. However, single use surgical instrument and/or their component parts should be simple in order to make them inexpensive enough that discarding them makes economical sense. The current benefit in the field of orthopedic surgical reamers having a built-in (integral) debris collection space for holding bone tissue fragments does not generally admit of simple reamer tool configurations.
It would be beneficial to the orthopedic surgical instruments field to have available a reamer tool and a tool handle/holder combination for which appropriate cleanliness and sterility after use can be easily accomplished. What is needed is a separable reamer tool and tool holder combination which is simple, relatively inexpensive to manufacture and at least in part disposable. Still further, what is needed is a tool holder that is easily and quickly disassemblable for cleaning and sterilization.